A rare tweak from Fosse

Hard-nosed catchers are the epitome of ballplayers and one of the best of that old-time breed, Ray Fosse, knows his baseball as well as anybody. Still, it’s sometimes frustrating to listen to the veteran A’s announcer because he won’t say anything negative — Fosse subscribes to the say-nothing-controversial ballplayer’s code made famous by a fictional tough old catcher, Crash Davis in “Bull Durham.”

So it was refreshing to hear Ray give someone a little tweak on Sunday. When asked how the Mets felt about dealing pitcher Scott Kazmir to Tampa Bay, he responded “about the same as the A’s feel about letting Aaron Harang get away — and it’s the same guy in both cases,” who didn’t think that Harang and Kazmir were good enough to pitch in the majors.

He was referring, obviously, to Rick Peterson, the A’s pitching coach through 2003 (the year they parted with Harang) who went to New York in ’04 (the year the Mets dealt Kazmir). Way to go Ray! His next step could be to say something less-than-admiring about someone currently with the club — somehow I don’t think he’ll get there.

Today’s riddle: What did the A’s do because they didn’t have any uninjured players with a big enough glove to play center field? (answer after the jump.)